Menendez-Rubio amendment would ban new flights to Cuba from U.S.

View full sizeAP photoPassengers wait in line to check in as they prepare to travel to Cuba at Miami International Airport in Miami, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010.

It's probably something deep-rooted and personal when a Republican and a Democrat in the U.S. Senate can agree on an issue. This may be the case between two federal legislators, one from North Bergen.

Cuban-American Sen.’s Robert Menendez, D - N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced they introduced an amendment that would block any new flights from U.S. airports to Cuba that might be allowed by the recent Obama decision to make it easier for educational, religious, cultural and humanitarian groups to visit the island, reports the Miami Hearld.

Last Month, Obama announced changes in Cuba policy that would allow almost any U.S. airport with high-ranked security to host charter flights to and from Cuba. Presently, only Miami, Los Angeles, and New York can handle such flights. The Miamia newspaper reports that airports in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Key West and Las Vegas
were among those that had been pushing to be allowed to handle some of
the U.S.-Cuba charter flights.

The Herald reports that the Rubio-Menendez amendment is attached to a funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It would block any new U.S. flights to countries on the U.S. list of supporters of international terrorism and those countries include Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan.

Both Menendez and Rubio have stature in their respective parties but it is not known when the amendment would eventually come to a vote and its chances of being approved.